1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to multi-device storage containers that have an internal expandable bus and to methods for configuring expandable buses.
2. Background Art
The use of expandable bus topologies has become widespread. For example, FireWire, USB and USB2 are well known expandable buses that are used today. In general, an expandable bus is any arrangement where a host supports a bus that may be expanded to allow the connection of multiple devices thereto. So, for example, SCSI and some other technologies such as arbitrated loop to a certain extent are also considered to be expandable buses. Typically, for any type of expandable bus there is a limit to the number of devices that may be placed on the same bus. For example, it is possible to put up to 63 devices on the same FireWire bus. Devices on the same bus share the same physical link such that the overall data throughput performance is limited by the bus type. In certain host implementations, the host may support more than a single bus.
When the host can support more than a single bus, it is useful to dispatch devices across all available buses. However, if the plurality of devices are encapsulated/gathered inside the same physical container, it could be difficult to arrange/modify the hardware bus topology among the plurality of devices in the container to adapt to the capabilities of the host. In the same way, the host could not adapt to a single container or set of containers. Further, the addition of a container to the host would desirably be hardware transparent to the greatest extent possible.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an improved system for configuring expandable buses in a multi-device storage container and related method.